Shirebrook Town 3 v Campion FC 0 - NCEL Div 1

Tuesday 14th November 2017
Toolstation NCEL Division 1
Shirebrook Town (2) 3
Joe Cheeseman 9
Declan Brewin 20, 67
Campion FC (0) 0
Admission £5. Programme £1.50
Attendance: 101

The hosts kicked off in seventh place in the Division 1 table, two positions and one point behind Campion, who they leapfrogged, along with Selby Town by virtue of tonight's result, to move up to  fifth, as they prepare to take on Winterton Rangers at Langwith Road this coming weekend, on the same afternoon that Campion will be travelling to Derbyshire again, to play an away game at Dronfield Town.
Shirebrook underpinned this impressive home win, with a first half display, that with just slightly more finesse and a clinical edge in front of the visitors goal, would have seen them comfortably take more than a mere two goal lead into the break.

Joe Cheeseman opened the scoring in the ninth minute, after Carter Widdowson dropped a great knock down the right flank, over Brewin's shoulder for him to run onto and the visitors were forced into conceding a right wing corner. Adam Colton delivered the resulting flag kick into the heart of the Campion six yard box and Ben Kendall had to head it away from under the crossbar, but his attempted clearance fell to Kieran Watson, whose angled effort was pushed away by Dan Armitage, who could only help the ball into the path of Cheeseman who forced it over the line from close range.
Talent Ndlovu and Aidan Day, both skied the ball over Gavin Saxby's crossbar as the West Yorkshire side made two unconvincing attempts to level things up.

And in the twentieth minute, Brewin doubled Shirebrook's lead, squeezing the ball in by the right hand post from Watson's right wing delivery, after Chris Timons had played a long diagonal ball out to the home sides number ten, from inside his own half.
Leon Hurles-Brook broke free on the left hand side of Shirebrook's area. but showed too much of the ball to Saxby, who came off his line and claimed it.... and as play quickly switched ends, Armitage saved from Brewin at full stretch at the expense of a corner, from which Colton picked out Sam Dockwray, whose first time strike on the half volley was cleared off the line.

The same Colton/Dockwray combination, was thwarted by a defensive block moments later and there were some murmurs of discontent from the home crowd when Watson hit the deck under a challenge inside the visitors area but the referee waved Shirebrook's penalty appeals away.
Widdowson's long knock cleared the Campion defence and found Ryan Herbert's well timed run, but he nudged the ball narrowly past the wrong side of the left hand post.
Campion threatened in first half stoppage time, when Hurles-Brook swung in a  cross towards Luke Robinson, but Chris Timons beat him to the ball in the air and headed the ball behind to safety, while Widdowson cleared the resulting corner away.
HT: 2-0

The visitors keeper had taken a knock late in the first half and he was substituted during the interval, so it was a great opportunity for Shirebrook to test his replacement from the restart, but it was Campion who had the first opportunity of the second half, when Robinson and Day, battled across the front of the home sides area from right to left and laid the ball off to Ndlovu who spanked a shot over from fifteen yards out.
And the visitors went close again five minutes later when Dan Brown headed wide at the back post from Lee Bradshaw's right wing free kick.
Sam Smith was putting in a shift and a half at left back for the home side and getting forward down the wing as Shirebrook looked to create a further goal to make the game safe. Jermaine Jatau almost scored a third for the hosts, but having timed his run well to receive the ball inside the visitors area, he punted his shot just past the post.

Jatau fed the ball through towards Watson, but as the wrong footed substitute keeper struggled to clear his lines, Ben Kendall hooked the ball away.

Bradshaw chased a long, hopeful,  bouncing punt into the Shirebrook area, but Saxby rose like a majestic salmon to claim the ball.

Jason Davis worked his way forward into the home sides area, but his route to goal was blocked by Timons and when he retrieved the ball, he had to rush his shot under pressure from Jatau.

In the sixty seventh minute, Shirebrook made the breakthrough that all but made the game safe, when Brewin turned his marker just outside the Campion area and advanced forward, he spotted the next defender backing off and curled the ball round him and into the bottom right hand corner.

Shirebrook weren't going to let their three goal lead slip and while Campion passed the ball to death across the middle of the park, effectively running the clock down to the home side's advantage, there was only going to be one winner now.

Herbert skimmed a shot narrowly wide late in the game and Watson cleared the bar with a dipping shot as the referee consulted both of his linesman for a time check and blew the final whistle as the goal kick was taken.

FT: Shirebrook Town 3 v Campion FC 0

The Shirebrook management had wanted a reaction to the recent dip in form from their team... and that is exactly what they got tonight.